Adjectives and Adverbs are NOT Good Description© Laura Elvin
Page 2
Feb 22, 2000
Consider some of the following:
"he said in a hoarse voice"
~ versus ~
"he rasped" "she sunk the knife in fast and hard"
~ versus ~
"she plunged the knife in" "the big fuzzy dog"
~ versus ~
"the malamute" "the girl who sits in the front office and answers the phone"
~ versus ~
"the receptionist" "she quickly took the salt shaker from him"
~ versus ~
"she snatched the salt shaker from him" Hopefully, you get my point. Be specific; it sets a more descriptive picture in the reader's mind and keeps you from sounding like a hack.
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To paraphrase Mark Twain, the best way to deal with an adverb is to kill it.Thanks for a great article! It opened my eyes to better writing. Let the A/A hunt begin! ...
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Thanks, Destroyer and Donna for posting here! Destroyer, I think you made both our points . Donna, I couldn't agree more about "qualifiers". I'm not an expert yet at spotting them, but I'm a lot ...
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Admittedly, frivolous adverbs and unwieldy adjectives are grossly, redundantly, and repeatedly overused, often by good--I mean really good--writers who definitely should know much better. Then ...
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I excitedly read your informative, interesting article about writers unfortunately overusing adverbs and dismal adjectives. I was immediately thinking of all kinds of poor, bad, and merely fair works ...
-- posted by DestroyerZ2K
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Hi Katrinko!I opened your posting here with trepidation. I'm never sure how people will react to my "writing advice", and there are more than one or two writers in love with advers. Thank ...
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